NOC Sri Lanka Annual General Meeting 2020 held

Call for unity urged by President Suresh Subramaniam  

Balance, vision and drive has special merit in any deed or activity. The 2020 version of the Annual General Meeting of the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka concluded on Saturday proving that the above values played a special significance in the proceedings.  

To start with the president NOC SL Suresh Subramaniam proudly announced that for the first time in the organisation’s history they were able to present an audit report that any flaws in it. In his speech the president was quoted saying “I am very happy to see at least one person from each federation is present at this auditorium. It was a tremendous task during the last two years to meet people personally and I am very happy you all are present here today. 

“I would like to start today’s proceedings thanking the NOC SL Finance Committee for presenting an unblemished financial report and I must make special mention of its two stalwarts, Joseph Kenny and Lalith Vithana for guiding us through financial proceedings through the given period.” 

He also paid special mention to the NOC SL treasurer Gamini Jayasinghe and also the NOC SL accountant Gayani Seneviratne for their indefatigable contribution to the effort. He also said “Likewise each of my committees have tremendous work, though during the last two years many people in the world including Sri Lanka were struggling mainly due to the vagaries of the Covid-19 pandemic; but we stuck to our guns.” 

At that point the NOC SL President thanked his co-members – Asanga Seneviratne who led the High Performance subcommittee by identifying future prospects; then the Junior Development Committee headed by Shirantha Peiris who has taken his role very seriously, Women’s Committee Chairperson Niloo Jayatillaka who has been working very closely with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) getting the women’s rights through Safe Sport programme and many other related programmes put together. He also mentioned the Procurement Committee, Medical Committee and the others and thank them for their hard work. 

Mr. Subramaniam added “We had a very strenuous one year, but we managed to work that for our benefit, Zoom or whatever possible way.” 

He also mentioned about the role that the GoodSport played. As result of the decline of activity we have converted the magazine into a weekly e-magazine where we inform you about the latest developments sports world. He then added “We have great backing from the corporate sector and companied in the calibre of Akbar Brothers, MAS holdings, Sunshine Holdings, Hirdaramani, Crysbro who have come forward to sponsor the “Next Champ” Junior Development programme 18 and under and they have been identified in various sports where twenty young athletes are involved. These young athletes are covered on a monthly basis and they have to keep us informed about their progress. Our ultimate goal is international medals and we must make this a reality. To achieve this task, we all must shed our differences and work together. Most in this forum are former athletes who have shone in their given fields of activity. They for sure know to achieve positive results there should be unity and vision.”  

The Committee also welcomed and hailed the contribution made to the cause of Olympism by Dr. Chelliah Thurairajah and was presented with a special plaque commending his services. The NOC SL also appreciated the new Olympic entrants – Gymnastics and Equestrian.